A Chaotic World

Chapter 205: Reveal

Chiren had always been absolutely confident in his senses.

As a Third Cycle Origin Core realm martial artist, his perception had always been something that he could count on, and it had indeed never failed him in times of battle.

But now, he had actually completely lost the trail of his prey, and that was despite having locked onto the target the whole time!

How could this have happened?

At this stage, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He was now thrown into a situation that he had never even considered possible, and this left him momentarily at a loss as to what to do next.

Not too far away, hiding behind the cover of dense vegetation, Lu Tianzi could not help but take a second look at the jade pendant that was hanging around his neck.

When his master Xihuang Yuanfeng first handed Lu Tianzi the jade pendant, it was originally intended to hide Lu Tianzi's Spiritual Essence cultivation from the demons. However, Lu Tianzi eventually discovered that it could also be used to conceal his presence from the perception of others.

This time, it had once again come to be of great use to him.

During the battle earlier, and even during the long chase, Lu Tianzi had been constantly driving the Slaughter Essence within his inner world. Thus, Chiren never realised that Lu Tianzi still had this trick up his sleeves.

And this lack of information was what made all the difference.

After making sure that he had left the Chiren's line of sight, Lu Tianzi immediately stopped driving his Slaughter Essence, relying on the jade pendant to completely conceal his presence.

By doing so, it also meant that he would no longer be able to move as quickly. However, the ability to hide from Chiren's perception more than made up for it.

Now, all he had to do was to slowly get away from this place.

As long as Chiren did not possess any exceptional methods to track down his position, Chiren would need quite a bit of luck in order to find him in this dense forest!

"Do you think you can get away from me this easily?" Chiren yelled out in rage, unable to believe that he had actually lost his target. "I know you can hear me! I will give you one breath of time to appear before me. If you do so obediently, I will plead with the Commander to spare your life after bringing you back with me! Otherwise, I shall burn you down along with this entire forest!"

This breath of time passed as quickly as it came, and Lu Tianzi naturally did not reveal himself.

Chiren did not feel any disappointment from this result either.

He had expected as much, and was simply trying his luck there.

"You are asking for it!" Chiren shot upwards, flying past the thick canopy overhead and into the sky.

After he cleared the thick canopy, his hands once again burst into flames, sending terrifying balls of fire down towards the forest below.

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Explosions occurred in quick succession, giving birth to a circle of flames that marked out an extremely wide area of the forest.

According to Lu Tianzi's earlier speed, Chiren estimated that he must still be within this area within the circle of fire.

"Since you want to continue hiding, you can die hiding!" Chiren sneered maliciously.

Indeed, the flames cackled to life as the fire started to spread from tree to tree, quickly expanding in scope.

As Chiren expected, Lu Tianzi was indeed hiding somewhere within the circle.

In response to Chiren's words, Lu Tianzi fell into deep contemplation.

He might not have a bird's eye view like Chiren did, but it was not difficult to guess what Chiren's plan was.

At this rate, the longer Lu Tianzi waited, the more the fire would spread, making it increasingly difficult for him to escape. At the same time, it would be impossible to break past the fire without protecting himself with Essence energy.

This meant that the moment he tried to escape, he would have to reveal his position, allowing Chiren to zoom in on him once more.

There was also the option of hiding long enough until Chiren doubted his own judgement, giving up on this area in search of other leads. But from the confidence in Chiren's voice, it did not seem likely that Chiren would fall for something like that.

In that case, Lu Tianzi had no other choice.

He had to reveal himself!

In the sky, Chiren's eyes suddenly sharpened as he looked towards a certain direction.

Even if just for a short moment, he had sensed the unmistakable aura of an Advanced Essence Condensation realm martial artist near the edge of the circle of fire.

There was no doubt about it. Lu Tianzi must have forced his way out of the encirclement.

"Hahaha! Why do you even bother hiding again?" Chiren laughed. "I told you that it is of no use! What you are doing right now is no different from running around in the palm of my hands!"

Chiren struck out repeatedly with his palm again, forming yet another circle of fire around the point where he had discovered Lu Tianzi's aura.

This time, however, the circle of fire was far smaller than the earlier one.

He had been prepared for Lu Tianzi's disappearing act this time, and was able to immediately seal off all routes of escape. Due to how fast he had acted, the area that had to be considered was naturally far smaller than before.

And now that the area he had to observe was smaller, he would be able to react even faster the next time as well.

Just like this, with each corresponding circle, the size of the circle would reduce, allowing him to slowly close in on his target.

Eventually, there would no longer be anywhere left for his target to hide!

Chiren could not help but let out a triumphant smirk.

This was the advantage of possessing a higher cultivation level.

Even though his actions required him to expend a huge amount of Essence energy, his store of Essence energy was certainly far greater than the other party in the first place. And this advantage was what gave him the confidence to resort to such large scale measures.

But at this moment, his expression froze.

Near the edge of the first circle of fire, he once again felt the unmistakable aura of an Advanced Essence Condensation realm martial artist.

This time, however, it was in a completely different direction.

This bastard!

He actually pulled a feint on me?

Chiren could not help but feel embarrassed, especially having said those words earlier.

Chiren immediately understood that earlier when Lu Tianzi revealed himself for a single moment, he had actually chosen not to break through the circle of fire, remaining in the earlier circle instead.

After that, Lu Tianzi had gone in a completely different direction, and repeated the same thing once more.

Only that this time, did he truly break through the circle of fire?

Or did he not?

No matter what, Chiren had no choice but to act as though Lu Tianzi had indeed escaped the circle.

Otherwise, there was always the risk that he would completely lose track of the target!

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Chiren sent out balls of flames, creating yet another circle of fire.

However, it proved to be a feint once again.

That was the case not only the next time, but for the following ones as well.

After multiple times of the same thing happening, the majority of the dense forest was already a sea of flames, with almost a dozen circles of fire burning through the greeneries.

By now, Chiren was already sweating profusely, having expended quite a huge amount of Essence energy. Yet he continued to persist, ceaselessly sending out his perception to cover the entire area of forest.

At the same time, Lu Tianzi was not having it easy at all either.

He was also under an immense amount of pressure, with the clock quickly ticking down on him.

He was currently trying to force Chiren to expend his Essence energy. But sooner or later, the flames would spread far enough that Lu Tianzi would no longer have anywhere safe to move around in.

At that point, he would have no choice but to truly reveal his position, and Lu Tianzi could only hope to expend as much as possible of Chiren's Essence energy before then.

Of course, it would be best if Chiren gave up right now, leaving to recover his Essence energy. That would save Lu Tianzi all that trouble, but it was also nothing but wishful thinking on his part.

The sea of flames spread quickly.

Even so, Lu Tianzi was intending to wait this out till the absolute last moment, until he truly had no more space to manoeuver in.

After all, every bit of advantage mattered!

For every moment that passed, Chiren would have to expend more of his stamina in shrouding the entire area with his perception, and even to maintain his flight.

Right at this moment, the situation changed.

From the edge of the forest, the aura of another Essence Condensation realm martial artist promptly appeared.

Even though she had been much slower than the two of them, Nanlan Qianxue had followed the trail of fire, finally arriving at this spot.

She had a look of worry on his face, rushing forward without even bothering to hide her presence.

From her point of view, the marks of flames were more than enough evidence to show that Nanlu Tianzi had already engaged the Origin Core realm martial artist.

Thus, rather than hiding her presence, her priority was to catch up to the two of them.

Her strength might not be much in comparison, but she should at least be able to distract the opponent, thereby giving Nanlu Tianzi the opportunity to make his move.

Nanlan Qianxue was not being greedy.

As long as she was able to distract the opponent for just a moment or two, it would be more than enough!

And just as she had expected, Chiren was indeed distracted for a moment by her appearance.

The only problem was that in their current situation, this moment meant nothing.

There was simply no way for Lu Tianzi to take advantage of this moment of distraction, and Chiren knew it as well.

"How pointless," Chiren scoffed, and could not even be deigned to deal with her.

In this situation where even Nanlu Tianzi was rendered helpless, what impact could she possibly have?

Lu Tianzi frowned as well.

He truly could not understand why Nanlan Qianxue would chase after them, but what's done is done.

Now, he needed to find a way to move the battle away so that Nanlan Qianxue would not be implicated in their fight.

It was not too a big deal either. All he had to do was to carry out his plan slightly ahead of time.

Hmm?

Chiren was surprised to sense the unmistakable aura of an Advanced Essence Condensation realm martial artist once again.

It was once again in the earliest circle, but this was the position furthest away from him right now. Or at least, it was the furthest point among the directions that did not already have a secondary circle of fire blocking the way.

No matter how he looked at it, this was the optimal direction to escape in.

Did Nanlu Tianzi finally make his move?

But why did he choose to do so when he clearly had a bit more time to wait it out?

Don't tell me was it due to the appearance of that other brat?

Since that was the case, perhaps this other brat could be the key to lure out Nanlu Tianzi for good!

Chiren did the same thing as before, raining fire down to create a new circle of fire around the spot where Lu Tianzi had just revealed himself.

However, he did not stop at just that.

"Keep running, you rat! I will go take care of a side business before continuing to chase you down!" Chiren's voice resounded across the entire area.

After which, Chiren dived from the sky, reentering the dense forest from above.

This time, he was headed straight for Nanlan Qianxue.

What?!

Even though Chiren could not sense Lu Tianzi, Lu Tianzi had been keeping track of Chiren's position all this while. And when Lu Tianzi sensed Chiren's movements, he was rather shocked by the latter's sudden change in priority.

Chiren would rather risk letting him get further away than let off a random Essence Condensation realm martial artist in Nanlan Qianxue?

Not good, there is no way that Nanlan Qianxue would be able to survive if Chiren went for her seriously!

Indeed, both Chiren and Lu Tianzi did not believe that Nanlan Qianxue would be able to withstand more than a single attack. This was why Chiren dared to go out of his way to take a gamble on Nanlan Qianxue.

Of course it would be for the best if he managed to bring out Lu Tianzi by doing so.

But even if it failed to achieve the results that he wanted, Chiren would not be losing that much time either.

Nanlan Qianxue was not deaf.

Upon hearing what Chiren just said, she immediately had a fairly good understanding of the current situation.

She stood her ground, and was not daunted even as an immense pressure bore down upon her.

This was the pressure from an Origin Core realm martial artist, but she withstood it directly with pure willpower!

Even as she saw Chiren emerge from the thick canopy above, Nanlan Qianxue did not show the slightest bit of fear in her eyes.

Chiren was slightly impressed, but that was it.

He did not think that anything would change just because of her bravery.

No, perhaps instead of bravey, it would be more apt to call it foolhardiness.

That was, until Nanlan Qianxue pulled out a talisman from her spatial ring and channeled her Essence energy into it.

Back then when Nanlan Qianxue obtained the second place in the Nine Suns Trial, she had chosen an offensive talisman from the Pagoda of Treasures as one of her prizes. Right now, this talisman was exactly what she was depending on to contend against an Origin Core realm martial artist.

World Origin Energy surged in the surroundings, called forth by the activation of the talisman.

Chiren could not help but furrow his brows in caution.

There was no doubt about it.

This offensive talisman contained a power equivalent to a martial artist at the Origin Core realm!

At this juncture where both Chiren and Lu Tianzi thought Nanlan Qianxue would be completely helpless, she had revealed a trump card that could possibly turn the tide!

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